Game Competitions/Jams

Game competitions are an opportunity to get down and do something with deadline... with possible rewards for doing it well! It can be a great motivator and in some cases be a way to meet people and be part of a community!

Game Competitions
Stony Brook has its own Game Programming Competition in the Spring each year. Many of our SBGD veterans have been Finalists in the competition.

To enter your game in the contest, email the contest coordinator, Richard McKenna, richard@cs.stonybrook.edu. Entries must be received by May 1st. Once a project has been entered, the team must make an appointment with the contest coordinator to present the game. The coordinator will then select contest finalists for the competition event in May. All those entering the competition should expect to make a video trailer promoting their game. For more on the rules visit: http://www.cs.stonybrook.edu/~games/rules.html

The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers. IGF was founded to create for the independent game community the same benefit the Sundance Film Festival has brought to the independent film community, and is produced by the CMP Game Group, producers of the Game Developers Conference, Game Developer magazine, and Gamasutra.com.
 * http://www.cs.stonybrook.edu/~games/


 * http://igf.com/

Indiecade or IndieCade is an international juried festival of independent video games. IndieCade is known as "the video game industry's Sundance". At IndieCade independent video game developers are selected to screen and promote their work at the annual IndieCade festival and showcase events.

Showcase your talent by bringing your ideas to life! The Dream.Build.Play Challenge invites you to create an Xbox 360 or Windows Phone game (or one of each!) to compete for prizes that include cash, a possible game publishing contract, and more. Microsoft’s Imagine Cup is the world’s most prestigious student technology competition, bringing together student innovators from all over the world. If you have a great idea for a new app, bring it to life through Imagine Cup. With Microsoft resources and support, you can make a great app and bring your dreams to life! So do you have an idea for a gaming experience that could transform how we play? Imagine Cup is where students can make it happen and share it with the world!
 * http://www.indiecade.com/
 * https://www.dreambuildplay.com/Main/Default.aspx


 * http://www.imaginecup.com/IC13/Competition/Games#?fbid=MxEFdBf50Jv

Tech Competitions
There's plenty of overlap between game development and technology, so why not try a tech competition if you think you have a good idea? You might even win a prize!

InnoCentive is the global leader in crowdsourcing innovation problems to the world’s smartest people who compete to provide ideas and solutions to important business, social, policy, scientific, and technical challenges. Challenge.gov is an online challenge platform administered by the  U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) in partnership with  ChallengePost that empowers the U.S. Government and the public to bring the best ideas and top talent to bear on our nation’s most pressing challenges. This platform is the latest milestone in the Administration’s commitment to use prizes and challenges to promote innovation.
 * http://www.innocentive.com/
 * http://challenge.gov/

Jams
The Experimental Gameplay Project is a monthlong competition emphasizing innovation in which anyone can participate given they follow three rules to make a game:

Ludum Dare is one of the largest game development competitions featuring contestants such as Markus Persson of Minecraft fame. There are two general ways to participate: a 48 hour solo competition and a 72 hour game jam with looser restrictions. Find out more at:
 * 1) Each game must be made in less than seven days,
 * 2) Each game must be made by exactly one person,
 * 3) Each game must be based around a common theme i.e. “gravity”, “vegetation”, “swarms”, etc.
 * Check it out at: http://experimentalgameplay.com/

<p style="font-size:13px;"><span style="color:rgb(69,69,69);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,'NimbusSansL','LiberationSans',FreeSans,sans-serif;line-height:16.899999618530273px;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;">The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world's largest game jam event. Think of it as a hackathon focused on game development. <span style="color:rgb(69,69,69);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,'NimbusSansL','LiberationSans',FreeSans,sans-serif;line-height:16.899999618530273px;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;">The structure of a jam is usually that everyone gathers on Friday late afternoon, watches a short video keynote with advice from leading game developers, and then a secret theme is announced. All sites worldwide are then challenged to make games based on that same theme, with games to be completed by Sunday afternoon. P <span style="color:rgb(69,69,69);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,'NimbusSansL','LiberationSans',FreeSans,sans-serif;line-height:16.899999618530273px;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;">eople are invited to explore new technology tools, trying on new roles in development and testing their skills to do something that requires them to design, develop create, test and make a new game in the time span of 48 hours.
 * http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/


 * http://globalgamejam.org/about